Summer on Capitol Hill

4/17/16 Dick's Drive-in

Some say this is climate change. Others say it’s just another El Niño. Seventy-two degrees and a clear blue sky? I don’t care if it’s April – I call it summer! We couldn’t have picked a better day for Urban Sketchers Seattle to initiate outdoor sketching season!

I started heading for Cal Anderson Park, where I had left behind a few ideas for things to sketch when the Friday sketchers were there last week. But as I crossed Broadway, I looked over my shoulder at the Dick’s Drive-in sign and decided to do that first before the lunch crowd got thick. Parking my stool at the edge of Dick’s lot, I had a great view of that familiar orange sign against the blue sky.

Next I wandered over to Seattle Central Community College’s campus, where Charles Smith’s Park Sculpture caught my eye, along with the long, lean shadows of the trees surrounding it.

4/17/16 Park Sculpture by Charles Smith

I had just enough time before the sketchbook sharing for a couple more quick ones of the Broadway Farmers Market. I associate farmers markets with summer, so I was surprised to see that it was open already. Then I remembered that it’s one of few Seattle markets open year-round. Like I said, today it might as well have been summer!

4/17/16 flower vendor

4/17/16 Broadway Farmers Market

Meet the Correspondent: Michele Cooper

I'm Michele, with one "l".  I call myself a "total Washingtonian", as I was born in Spokane, spent my childhood in various towns in Eastern Washington (Moses Lake, Soap Lake, Wenatchee) then on the coast in the greater Seattle area since high school.

Looking across Livingston Bay toward Marysville.

I now live with my husband in Marysville, about 45 miles north of Seattle. When we moved here in 1966 it was a very small town with one blinking traffic light. You weren't even required to stop unless there was another car at the crossing. Marysville was where people would come just for the pies at the Village Inn all the way from Vancouver, B C. about 2 hours away to the north. Now we are a city of over 60,000 in the third most populous county in Washington state.

Drawing, painting and anything to do with art has always been my passion. I love sharing my discoveries and have taught adult watercolor classes from Bellingham and Anacortes to Kirkland, Camano Island and Seattle since 1979. I am a contributing author to two publications printed by Northlight Books, "The Ultimate Guide to Painting from Photographs" and Gary Greene's "Artists' Photo Reference!. Funny, eh?, for a person who prefers sketching on location!

Cap Sante with Anacores Sketchers

Last summer I decided to take a break from teaching classes and workshops to recharge my creative batteries. I met with the Anacortes Sketchers on Mondays. I wandered alone at will, sketching and painting in and out of the studio.

Little did I know how the summer would change on June 28 by treating myself to an urban sketchers workshop cosponsored by USk Seattle and SAM.

I was looking for sketching companions and found so much more. It was great to be a student for

Busy Market Day on Broadway, Capital Hill, Seattle. 

once, letting Frank, Gail and Gabi guide me through my old familiar haunts at Pike Place Market, seeing their ways of interpreting the sights, sounds and action. Ever since then I have met weekly with  the Friday sketchers as well as on a Sunday or two with the Seattle urban sketchers.

I am honored to have been invited to be a correspondent for the Urban Sketchers Seattle blog. They put the right words to my journey, "seeing the world, one drawing at a time". I look forward to sharing my stories with you and the sketches that illustrate them.

Michele's Blog

Sketches on Flickr

Central Seattle Community College and the Broadway Market

Before we went to Capitol Hill I had visions of sketching the old buildings and some of the icons there. The combination of sunshine, balmy temperatures, crowds of people and sumptuous fruits and vegies compelled me to shift my focus. Rich colors and lots of people -- sketching magnets for me. 

When I perched myself, however, I just couldn't get the lines I wanted with the combination of paper and pen that I had brought. So I folded my stool and hiked across the street to Blicks for something that would soak up my pen and colors and slow down my lines - Japanese mulberry paper. 

It really was the kind of day you just want to drink in or capture it to put in a bottle - or a drawing - before we have to head indoors for the winter. 

I stuck around a bit after the group and got two more sketches that I just finished with color and scanning. The colors of the tomatoes and the shapes of the people were what appealed to me.